Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Computing devices such as personal computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, cellular phones, and countless types of Internet-capable devices are increasingly prevalent in numerous aspects of modern life. Over time, the manner in which these devices are providing information to users is becoming more intelligent, more efficient, more intuitive, and/or less obtrusive.
The trend toward miniaturization of computing hardware, peripherals, as well as of sensors, detectors, and image and audio processors, among other technologies, has helped open up a field sometimes referred to as “wearable computing.” In the area of image and visual processing and production, in particular, it has become possible to consider wearable displays that place a very small image display element close enough to a wearer's (or user's) eye(s) such that the displayed image fills or nearly fills the field of view, and appears as a normal sized image such as displayed on a traditional image display device. In some configurations, wearable computers can receive inputs from input devices, such as keyboards, computer mice, touch pads, and buttons. In other configurations, wearable computers can accept speech inputs as well or instead via voice interfaces.
Emerging uses of wearable displays include applications in which users interact in real time with an augmented or virtual reality. Such applications can be mission-critical, such as in a public safety or aviation setting, or recreational, such as interactive gaming.